


These Are The Nights

by BeTheCheeto



Series: MadaTobi Week 2019 [5]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, MadaTobi Week 2019
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2020-08-11 21:27:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20160352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeTheCheeto/pseuds/BeTheCheeto
Summary: MadaTobi Week Day 5: SoulmatesIn a world where the first eye contact you make with your soulmate reflects the nature of the relationship between you, Madara makes a startling discovery.





	These Are The Nights

Madara growled aggressively as he leapt forwards, completely abandoning his battle with Hashirama in favor of jumping before the blade swinging for his brother. He managed to block the strike before it embedded itself in Izuna’s shoulder, what he was sure would have proven to be a fatal blow. When he looked up to angrily glare into the eyes of the man who had dealt the blow, however, his vision went white, and he collapsed, his Sharingan turning itself off. 

“Madara!” He heard cries of concern from his brother and several other clan members, and faintly in the background, he could hear Hashirama expressing concern over his baby brother. He blinked hard, trying to clear his field of vision and the battlefield slowly began coming back into focus before him. The commotion in the center had stopped all fighting, it seemed, as all members of both clans stared in confusion at the scene before them. 

Madara noticed that Tobirama was on the ground, presumably taken down by whatever attack had disabled him, as well. As worrying as it was that an attack could be launched on them both in the middle of a battle without either noticing, Madara couldn’t help but feel excited. Whatever they had just been hit with had come from neither the Senju nor the Uchiha clan. This meant that perhaps, they had a common enemy, and perhaps this would be enough to bring them together long enough to stop the fighting. 

Slowly, his senses were returning to him, and he began to read the looks of concern on their brother’s faces. “Wha- what happened?” he managed weakly. 

Izuna looked uncomfortable, and looked at everyone around him, who carefully retreated. He sighed. “I don’t know exactly, but… it looked like…”

Madara growled in frustration as much as he could in his weakened state. “Looked like what, brother?”

Izuna sighed. “It looked like… a soul bond.”

Madara’s eyes widened. He’d had soul bonds described to him, of course, but he had never experienced it. In all honesty, he had been skeptical that in the world they lived in, he would ever meet his soulmate. After all, if it was an Uchiha, he would have already met them as clan head. Seeing as it wasn’t, he figured it didn’t really matter who his soulmate was as they would most likely belong to an enemy clan, assuming they still lived at all. He had never really bothered to pay much attention to the descriptions, though he did remember that each soul bond manifested differently based on the conditions under which they met. 

Hashirama was now approaching them, hands held up in surrender and a hopeful smile on his face. “Hey, Mads,” he said weakly, using Madara’s childhood nickname in an attempt to butter him up. “I guess we should talk about this, huh?”

Madara growled. “There will be time for talking later. Right now, we have to find who did this, and…”

Hashirama raised an eyebrow at him. “Well, if you know who that is, exactly, I’m sure that there are dozens of researchers and philosophers who want to speak to you. Come on, Madara. We should move somewhere private and discuss this,” Hashirama said quietly. 

Madara glared at his old friend. “Discuss what? We were attacked, and now we need to find who did it.”

Hashirama’s eyes widened in surprise at Madara’s response. “Madara, no one attacked you. You and Tobi are soulmates. That ‘attack’ was just your bond manifesting,” he said quietly, trying to keep their conversation from the gathering crowd. 

Madara sighed in exasperation and gestured for Hashirama to come closer. The man looked wary, and Madara saw some of their clansmen bring their hands back to their swords, temporarily returned to their sheaths to investigate the commotion, as Hashirama leaned towards him. “Hashi, it’s fine. This attack can bring the clans together. We can team up against this unknown force. You don’t need to make up a soul bond,” he said as quietly as possible. 

Hashirama jerked back in surprise, concern etched on his face. He reached out a hand for Madara’s forehead, only to have a stony-faced Izuna clasp a hand around his wrist. “You will not touch my brother,” he said coldly. 

Hashirama stayed close and spoke quietly. “Please, Izuna, you know as well as I do what’s just happened. Please, let’s get them somewhere private where we can discuss this. I’m a little worried about Madara, as well. He seems… a little delusional.”

Izuna glared, but looked at Madara’s confused face darting between the two of them and sighed. “Fine. But you try to so much as lay a finger on my brother, and I’m taking your hand off.”

They successfully pulled their brothers to the side. Tobirama was surprisingly quiet, and Madara was still angrily protesting that they needed to find the rogue attackers before they got away. Izuna was brooding, not liking the idea of a Senju brother-in-law one bit, while Hashirama was babbling happily about how this solved all of their problems. 

Madara angrily paced the makeshift cabin Hashirama hastily built to keep their conversation private while Touka and Hikaku calmed their clans and kept the tentative peace that had formed while they waited to see who would come out alive. Izuna was attempting to get his brother to slow down, sit, anything that would let him rest. He had read that the manifestation of a soul bond greatly affected the individual, exhausting their chakra and energy for several hours. Madara showed no sign of this, though. Izuna couldn’t help but hope that meant that other things he had learned of soul bonds, like the fact that the partners will fall into a deep depression without each other, might be untrue, as well. 

Alas, despite Hashirama’s pleas, he was unable to convince Madara of the truth, and Izuna refused to help him. He didn’t want a bastard Senju in his family. The two clans eventually parted, mostly confused. 

The next few days in the Uchiha compound were rather uneventful. Madara defused a situation with the elders when they tried to propose a marriage between himself and the Hatake heiress. (Really, as though they wanted to join with a clan that was so willing to throw away it's own identity just for the use of the Uchiha name.) Izuna saw through their ploy for what it was, but Madara had yet to accept his new connection to Izuna’s lifelong rival, and the younger brother certainly wasn't about to do anything that might push the elder towards the Senju. Other than that, however, it was just life as they knew it in the Uchiha compound.

Then one day, about five days after the incident, Madara woke, and he had no desire to get up. Knowing how important his health and presence was to the well-being of his clan, he forced himself to anyway, but found he struggled with working up the energy to care about trivial issues in the clan. Izuna noticed, but didn't comment, praying his brother was just having an off day, though a voice in the back of his mind told him that he knew what he needed to do. He pushed that voice down firmly and resolved to keep a closer eye on Madara for now.

Unfortunately things only seemed to get worse over time. Madara’s depression grew, and he didn’t seem to understand the cause of it at all. They hadn’t had a battle with the Senju in quite some time, and he knew the clan was getting restless, wondering why the Senju were so quiet. Izuna knew exactly why they hadn’t challenged them recently, but he wasn’t ready to give up yet. It was with this determination that he showed up at his brother’s house the first day he didn’t show up to breakfast on time. 

He didn’t even bother knocking, instead just waltzing in to the house. The curtains were still drawn, so he headed straight to his brother’s room. He pushed the door open, waiting for his eyes to adjust before looking around. He was not surprised to see the lump still under the covers that was his brother. He closed the door behind him, and headed over to the bed, where he sat gingerly. “Hey, Mads. Is everything okay?” he asked gently. 

He half hoped that Madara would shoot out of bed, exclaiming that he slept in, but more of him knew that wouldn’t happen. Seeing his normally responsible, arrogant brother wallowing his day away in bed gave him the resolve he needed. He may not like it, but his choices were to accept the Senju, or watch his last brother wither away, and that was something he just couldn’t do, no matter the cost.

Madara blinked blearily at him. “Izuna?” he said quietly, his voice tinged with confusion. “Why are you here?”

Izuna mustered up a smile. “You missed breakfast. The clan was getting a little worried.” 

Madara’s face wrinkled as he tried to process that. “Breakfast? What time is it?”

“A little past nine.” 

“Nine? Oh… well, let me be, Izuna. I don’t feel well today.”

“Oh. Well, why don’t you come with me? I know just what will help,” his little brother said. He helped Madara dress and got him out of the house, supporting him as he steered them towards their destination with a grimace.


End file.
